I found what I believe is a bootleg of Heat (1995) in Hong Kong recently. No bar code, reference number and the inside of the gatefold is literally the same as the front and back cover! I'm gonna add it to the DB but just wondered if anyone has seen this before...

Hi brmanuk,

From the picture of the label, I suspect what you have may be a bootleg, possibly Taiwanese. The label looks very similar to some of those released by the Taiwanese publisher Jei Wea. However, I don't see any reference number on the label, so it may indeed be a bootleg of some sort. It's definitely not the official Hong Kong release, which was done by ERA Home Video with the reference number ERA-35-96. I have a copy of it, and the label looks nothing like the one you have. I'll be interested to see what your jacket looks like.

Best Regards,
David

Hi David,

I've updated the photo links so hopefully they work now.

Yeah, I'm convinced it's a bootleg. Funnily enough, the picture is subtitled however it's actually in widescreen (unlike the ERA release) and isn't the same print as the U.S. release; the black bars are even on the screen whereas the U.S. release is shifted up slightly. According to my colleague, the Chinese used is Traditional which means it's either a HK release or (as you said) most likely a Taiwanese release.

ps. thanks for all your hard work updating the database, 9 times out of 10 when I search for a HK disc your name is attached

Hi brmanuk,

Yes, I have done quite a bit of work to help out Julien with the database on these releases. About 10 years ago, I was buying a lot of discs from a brother and sister team in Chicago. The brother was a serious laserdisc collector like myself, and he owned a collection which at the time was about the same size as mine. However, whereas my collection was then almost entirely U.S. releases, his was full of Asian imports. They were selling off his collection, and most of the best that he had is now in my collection. Prior to dealing with them, I had absolutely no Hong Kong or Taiwanese discs whatsoever. When I saw what he had from those countries, I fell in love with them completely. I started buying as many of them as I could afford, and did so for probably 2 or 3 years. At that point, it became obvious that his collection was running out, and they were "scraping the bottom of the barrel". Believe me, that was a sad day indeed. During the period when I was dealing with them, I noticed very quickly that almost everything I was buying from them from Hong Kong and Taiwan was not listed here on LDDb! I decided that would be the best way that I could contribute to the global laserdisc community here. By submitting as much information as possible to Julien to update the database, a permanent record could be created of what was available in the "lesser Asian markets". You see, there was much better documentation of what was released in Japan, which was obviously the "big" Asian market. However, very little reference material was available on the other Asian countries. Although it is still far from complete, what we have here on LDDb is the best and most accurate record of what was released on the format in that part of the world. To this day, I still consider every newly discovered release from these countries to be a rare and exciting treasure! By documenting them here, we can share this information with collectors throughout the world, and preserve this sometimes strange and fascinating part of the history of the format. Keep watching the "newly added" section on the homepage for the latest discoveries!

Best Regards,
David